Letters: A Reed, February 3, 2015

I’m stunned at the effrontery of Frank Edmonds (To Be Frank, January 27). Just why on earth does he and others think that music should be free? Would he walk into a restaurant, eat his meal and leave without paying? There’s no difference.

Both are created by talented (on the whole) artists, who take pride in their creativity and on delivering the finished article to the customer (having had many attempts to refine and reconstruct it, not unfairly, expects to be reimbursed for their trouble.

Are we to assume the writers of the Lynn News are just doing it for the Hell of it? Oh no, hang on a minute Mr Edmonds, someone had to BUY the paper to read your words in the first place!

Like most creative people, jobbing musicians are not salaried and rely solely on publishing rights, royalties, play lists etc for their income. They are not a charity nor do I believe are iTunes or Spotify. As it is, the royalties paid, even to established and mutli-million selling artists is a pittance from these sites, so I assume any money is gratefully received.

Amazon, E-Bay, along with thousands of other on-line businesses charge handling fees etc for their services as they are a service industry, that’s how it works. Even our own Corn Exchange charges a booking fee!

Just because it’s music, why should it be free? It’s an arrogant conceit.